Mechanism Versus Organism: A Loosely Kantian Perspective and Its Implications for Bioengineering
Series
Integrated Science
Type
book section
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Abstract
Building on the work of Immanuel Kant and researchers working in his tradition (but without getting lost in exegetical details that are immaterial for this volume), we discuss a notion of the living organism based on its formal teleological structure, contrast it with mechanistic objects, and draw some consequences for the notion of bioengineering. Bioengineering, in our understanding, is close to a contradictio in adiecto: either something is alive, which implies substantial autonomy in its inner functional organization, or it is engineered, which means that the engineer continuously determines the thing’s functional organization.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
None
Book title
Thinking - Bioengineering of Science and Art
Publisher
Springer
Publisher place
Cham
Volume
7
Start page
381
End page
396
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
267259
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
kant_organism_published.pdf
Size
334.1 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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